from Hacker News

How to disappear– Inside the world of extreme-privacy consultants

by FinnLobsien on 5/28/25, 8:32 AM with 11 comments

  • by robertlagrant on 5/28/25, 12:55 PM

    > Then he logs in to Privacy.com, a subscription service that lets him open virtual debit cards under as many different names as he wishes; Harris has 191 cards at this point, each specific to a single vendor but all linked to the same bank account. This isolates risk: If any vendor is breached, whatever information it has about him won’t be exploitable anywhere else.

    Any vendor other than privacy.com, one assumes.

  • by CommenterPerson on 5/28/25, 12:40 PM

    He's my hero!

    I might have a tip to share with him though. I use a Garmin to navigate, it's pretty decent. I can give up traffic reports for the reduction in surveillance. Regarding new cars with a GPS which cannot be removed: I am on the lookout for a new car now. However, I'll continue to use my 20 year old Toyota until I find a good car without a GPS in it.

  • by fjd on 5/28/25, 9:51 AM

  • by zonkerdonker on 5/28/25, 11:20 AM

    >Living this way, he acknowledged, incurred a “20 percent cognitive” overhead.

    Great article. I wish I had the time, money, and dedication to be able to try some of the techniques, even if only for the principle of it. But like the author says, it really is a Sisyphean effort. There is too much convenience, too much money, too much power in your data.

  • by vincentpants on 5/28/25, 5:04 PM

    Do any of the sites he browses use cloudflare for DDoS protection? Does it use recaptcha to verify that he's human? Do the sites he browses have servers that are housed in a beligerent nation state? Did he use dns servers in a beligerent nation state? I feel like if the answer is yes to any of these might make most of this article moot.

  • by techdmn on 5/28/25, 1:03 PM

    My own list:

    * Leave your phone at home.

    * Shop locally, not online.

    * At locally owned stores, not big box chains that benefit from a lot of customer behavior data.

    * Paying cash, to avoid the payment processor reselling your purchase history.

    Now if only I could figure out a solution to those traffic cameras with license plate tracking, not to mention facial recognition.

  • by homeonthemtn on 5/28/25, 11:40 AM

    ... Why would you put in all of that work, only to have an article written about your self and everything you do in the Atlantic?